Last weekend I jumped in a car with three friends and drove across the border from Mozambique to South Africa. The drive from Maputo to the closest border crossing is about 95km - not too bad. I took the wheel for the first stretch given my experience driving on the left which my continental European travel companions, pictured, appreciated. The roads were good and the speed limit reached 120km/h. Sadly, the speed limit reduced to 0.001km/h when we reached the border, compounded somewhat by the long weekend.
On the Mozambique side of the border we parked the car and joined the queuing masses (pictured) to get our passports checked and stamped, doing the same 100m down the road at South African immigration. We managed to find a system to speed up the process in our favour so in about an hour we were back in the car and on our way to our first stop - Kruger National Park.
Despite our good looks we were rejected at the Kruger Gates. The park ranger informed us that if we hadn't pre-booked, there was no way we could enter as the Park was quite simply "full". Our appeals that we may never again travel all the way from Australia (it was the furthest home country between us) fell to deaf ears. I knew something was wrong when I found myself kneeling with clasped hands begging for entry trying my best to muster a non-existent tear. When we were certain we had exhausted every avenue, other than ram-raiding the gates, we quickly replanned our trip - a bit like when you take a wrong turn and the GPS has to recalibrate - it's not quite optimal but does the trick. We were now going to enter Kruger on the third and final day of our journey.
South Africa is divided into nine provinces each with a capital city (similar to Australia's states and territories). Our trip focused on the province of Mpumalanga in eastern South Africa where we visited Mac Mac Waterfall (we actually visited many waterfalls but Mac Mac was the best), Blyde River Canyon - said to be the third largest canyon in the world, God's Window - a lookout across the stunning canyon, the Three Rondavels - a rock formation that resemble traditional African rondavel huts, and the Potholes named for obvious reasons. The pictures below are of these sites.
In between our stop-offs at different sites we visited lots of small towns including Graskop. Harrie's is a cafe in Graskop famous for its pancakes ("pannekoek"). We afforded ourselves two stops in Graskop which allowed us to take in two visits to Harrie's. I opted for pancakes with ice cream and chocolate, pictured, for lunch on the first visit and something a little less decadent on the second.
Outside Harrie's cafe was a young troupe of dancers performing on the street. I recorded a short video which you can watch below.I saw these hideous 'crazy clay' handicrafts in a gift shop in Graskop. To me they looked like something I'd find in a two-dollar shop back home, but in Graskop they retailed for 398Rand about 52 US dollars. Needless to say, I didn't pick up one of these treasures to take home.
In the next post I'll write more about our day in Kruger Park.
Mac Mac and the other places you saw look amazing! MMMMmm and Harrie's pancakes look delicious...were they?
ReplyDeleteHi T, you're right, the pancakes were quite something special. Light, fluffy and cooked to perfection. The hot chocolate sauce was the icing on the cake (so to speak). That Sydney institute 'Pancake at the Rocks' pales in comparison. The sites were beautiful too, some of the scenery reminded me of Sydney's Blue Mountains... if the Three Rondavels were boys, they might get along with the Three Sisters quite well.
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